Brooks Wheelan Still Can’t Watch SNL, a Year After Being Fired
Brooks Wheelan was fired from Saturday Night Live about a year ago after being on the show for one season, and it still hurts.
He told comedian and podcaster Alison Rosen, that he still can’t watch the show even though watching his favorite comedians on SNL is what inspired Brooks to want to pursue comedy in the first place. He sat down with Rosen on her podcast, Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend earlier this week to talk about the personal details of his firing and his plans for the future.
“To achieve your ultimate dream, and then to not do well, I couldn’t fathom that would happen,” he said. “So when it was happening I was panicking.”
When he received word of his firing, Wheelan responded by immediately getting back on stage. “I remember when I got fired, I rode my bike immediately over to the UCB and was like ‘Can I do time?’ and did, like, 30 minutes of stand up. It was the ultimate, ‘Oh, you’re fine,’ because I was really bummed, but then I did stand-up and was, like ‘What are you talking about? You can still do this. No one can fire you from this.”
Before he was hired on Saturday Night Live, he was a stand up comic, and had never performed sketch or written for sketch. As disappointed as he was losing such a great gig, it’s not all bad news. At age 28 he’s already been on Saturday Night Live, and recorded a half hour special with Comedy Central which will air this summer.
He continues to perform stand-up comedy, his true love, nationwide.
Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend Podcast is released on Mondays and Thursdays. Download on iTunes, Sound Cloud, Stitcher, or www.alisonrosen.com. ARIYNBF is the top-rated female comedy podcast on iTunes. Listenership skyrocketed after her controversial firing from co-hosting The Adam Carolla Show podcast.
